McCormick & Co. Inc., the Sparks-based spice maker, has closed and sold its label-printing facility in Hunt Valley in a move that affected 48 workers.
The company sold the 110,052- square-foot warehouse building Oct. 29 for $4 million to 10820 Gilroy LLC, a private entity, according to state property records.
McCormick ceased production at the facility in June and liquidated the operation, a company spokesman said. The facility, situated on 7 acres on Gilroy Road, used to handle all of McCormick's printing needs, including labels for its spice products, the spokesman said.
"We decided to outsource our printing operation because, as a food company, this was not a core competency for us," said spokesman Mac Barrett.
Barrett said some employees retired, while others found work at other printing companies. He declined to say what McCormick planned to do with proceeds from the sale.
Ernest J. Vaile, the registered agent for Gilroy LLC, declined to comment yesterday. Vaile is chief financial officer of Webb-Mason Inc., a privately owned print management services company with headquarters next to the former McCormick facility.
McCormick's outsourcing of its label-printing is part of a broader effort that the world's No. 1 spice maker announced in the fourth quarter last year to streamline its operations. It expects to spend nearly $33 million through next year on cost-saving initiatives, which have already included the consolidation of manufacturing and distribution operations, employee reductions and a product line elimination.
In the third quarter, McCormick's sales grew 1.7 percent to $545 million, while net income rose 2.5 percent to $35 million. The company has said that it is on track to meet its sales growth goal of 4 percent to 6 percent this year.
"In a nutshell, McCormick has adopted an economic value-add philosophy where they examine new projects and existing operations for where their capital should be spent or reside," said Mitchell B. Pinheiro, a food industry analyst with Janney Montgomery Scott LLC in Philadelphia.
Shedding its printing operation "sounds consistent with what they've been doing," he said.
Shares of McCormick fell 31 cents to $23.69 yesterday.